LAKSA

Probably the fastest, tastiest, hearty soup you can make.

This delicious coconutty soup hails from Malaysia. We make the simplest version possible. Feel free to add anything that takes your fancy. There are dozens of variations on the internet.

Follow the recipe stage by stage and it will be a doddle.

Ingredients

100g Rice noodles
300ml Tin of coconut milk
1t Soy Sauce
4 Spring onions, sliced length wise into ribbons and cut into 5cm lengths
½ Sweet red pepper cut into thin slivers
Chillis, thinly sliced, or powder, to taste
1 Plump garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 Thumbnail of ginger, thinly sliced and and then cut into strips
1 Lime, zest and juice
Fist full of Bean sprouts
¼ Cup Sweetcorn and/or peas/beans/shredded cabbage

Method – Stage 1: vegetables

Prepare the vegetables quickly, keeping everything wafer thin.
Drop the vegetables straight into the saucepan as they are prepared.
Zest the lime straight onto the vegetables.

Method – Stage 2: Noodles

Place noodles into a second pan.
Pour boiling water onto the noodles, stirring them to separate them.
Place a tight fitting lid onto the pan
Cover with a towel, or tea towels, to insulate
Leave to stand for 5 minutes

Method – Stage 3: Laksa Soup

Pour over the vegetables, the coconut milk, soy sauce and lime juice.
Bring to the boil
Simmer for no more than 5 minutes.

Method – Stage 4: Assembly

Pour some of the noodle water into the soup, so that the vegetables are comfortably covered.
Drain and then place the noodles into 2 bowls.
Immediately ladle the soup onto the noodles and eat.

The vegetables should have some crispness. You can add salt, but remember soy sauce can be very salty.

This is often served with coriander leaves, halved hard boiled eggs and finely sliced and raw spring onion, some, or all, placed on top of the soup. When cooking, turmeric powder can be added, as can curry spices, as this is very often served as a curry soup. All variations are based on the basic recipe above. Some ingredients are often wizzed together to form ‘Laksa Paste’ and then pre-fried.